French Revolution
States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia and China
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsSkocpol asserts that social revolutions are rapid and basic transformations of a society's state and class structures. She distinguishes this from mere rebellions, which involve a revolt of subordinate classes but may not create structural change, and from political revolutions that may change state structures but not social structures. What is unique about social revolutions, she argues, is that basic changes in social structure and political structure occur in a mutually reinforcing fashion and these changes occur through intense sociopolitical conflict. A convergence of peasant rebellion on one hand and international pressures causing state breakdown on the other hand cause revolutionary social movements.
Jean Jaurès and the Socialist History of the French Revolution
On-Line via Zoom New York, NYVideo available: https://youtu.be/mtT8owRC5Fw
Jean Jaurès's magisterial work, A Socialist History of the French Revolution, has endured for over a century as one of the most influential accounts ever published. Mitchell Abidor's abridged translation of the original six-volume work makes this new edition truly accessible to an Anglophone audience. Geoff Kurtz, author of a 2014 biography of Jaurès, joins Mitch for a conversation about the History and the author's life and times.
The Political Writings of Marx and Engels: Social Classes, Revolution, and Human Freedom
On-Line via Zoom New York, NYThis group will read and discuss original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system - the class that has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation.
The Paris Commune: A New History
Video available on YouTubeCarolyn J. Eichner and Mitch Abidor discuss Eichner's new history of the Paris Commune. Her compelling account "makes a complicated event understandable and vivid. Eichner’s rich portraits bring to life the freedom and empowerment the Communards experienced, juxtaposed with the bloody repression of its final days." (Sarah Fishman)
Hegel for Radicals: Part III – Phenomenology of Spirit
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsA continuation of the Fall 2022 series in which we introduced Hegel’s mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. We will make the Phenomenology less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time.